Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-10-23
NEW YORK LETTER
LIFE IN krD THE PEOPLE OF
GOTHAM.
Omar Wall Street Characters House.
keeping Importing Pulpit Flo
uence-Burlesque-AN New Race.
Correspondence Of the Richmond Dispatch'l

many. Taking lew OF tneu ht ran
dom there is Asbury Harpending, OF
the Consolidated Exchange. He is a
Keptuckian by birth, about forty-fve
wears of age, has piercing black eyes,
y full long black beard, Is OF slender
hnild. and over six feet in height. He
became notorious in San francisco
vbon only twenty years of age. 1t was
duripe the civil war. He was full OF
boyish enthusiasm for the Confederacy,
and was arrested in San Francisco on
charge of plotting to capture, with
the aid of q number Of others, the trea-
surc-ships leaving that port for Panama
and then escape to England and use
the proceeds for the furtherance OF the
soutbefn cause. The authorities ar
rested him as the chief conspirator in
this piratical enterprise, and he was
convicted and imprisoned; subsequent
", however, being pardoned. He then
embarked in real estate ventures with
the famous Ralston, of San Francisco,
who drowned himself on the downfall
of the Bank Of California. Then Har-
pending built a block of buildings
having a frontage of 800 feet on Market
street, San Francisco. They took fire
and he watched the fire with the
greatest composure, comforted by the
thought of the ample insurance on
the property. His agent 1t proved,
however, bad neglected to insure
it, and a fortune went up in the smoke
and flames, burned offering to the
speculative gods. He came to New
York eight years ago, plunged into
mining enterprises, promoted the de-
velopment of some South American
mines, cot in low in tho last mining
boom, and was very successful, espe-
cially in the ComstOck shares. For in
stance he held considerable consolidated
Virginia for which he paid about 81
and which he sold at between $40 and
$50, making, it is understood, nearly
| S75O,OO0 He has had a career full OF
strange vicissitudes, has made and lost
several fortunes, and strange as it may
sound bas landed on his feet and is now
worth million more. He is man Of
indomitable resolution, full of fight,
undaunted under all circumstances, q
stormy petrol of speculation who has
rested Mt last on n sun-lit peak.
He has speculated in railroad stocks,
mining shares, or grain all his life, and
is one of million who has not been
permanently overcome by the fatal I'M
dertow which threatens big and little
on the speculative seas. He has had
the cramp number of times, but his
fiery southern blood has warmed him
up to a successful struggle against the
adverse current. Walking up and
down in brokers' Office and breathing
out slaughter against some offender
who seemed slow in executing an order,
he often presented queer spectacle.
Sometimes Chicago brokers were rather
slow IN reporting a transaction, and
then the would-be buccaneer of the
Golden Horn would break into threats
suggestive OF Colonel Bowie: "Ill
knife 'em, the Id scoundrels. Ill
knife EN-"
He FOUGHT GOULD.
Henry Smith, the former millionaire
and once big operator in stocks, but
now devotee of free-lunch counters,
may be put down as one of the queer
Wall-strcet characters. lie fought Jay
Gould in numberless speculatiOns.
Once he said "I'll make Jay Gould
earn his living with hand-organ and d
monkey"
The remark was repeated to Mr.,
Gould. He smiled grinily and said
nothing. When Henry Smith failed
for $4,000, 900 Mr.. Gould remarked
ole might now try the hand-orgar
himself" Smith had been engaged
with Addison Cammack and Baror
WoerishOfler in bear campaign, but
his two associates had found it prudent
to cover their short sales. Smith over
stayed his market, as most opera
tors DO sooner or later, and wa'
crushed by the triumphal car OF the
bulls. Jay Gould was the driver, and
he contemplated the mangled remains
of Hen" Smith with philosophical
serenity. Smith had few friends, anC
no one sympathized with him i'll hi
misfortune. In fact his failure wa:
celebrated by the manager of one large
house with an abundance of cigars fol
everybody in the establishment He il
short and slight, small in body ant
small in mind, purse-proud and snob
bish in the days when he was wortf
! $1,000, 600 or S6,000,000, aud hate(
even then. To-day he wanders like q
forlorn ghost in the region of Wal
street, looked upon with contempt by
those who know that he pulled dowr
poor William Heath, his broker, anC
that he has n soul of about the dimen
sions of a pin-head.
William Heath may be remembered
by some. He was "Hen y Smith
broker in his last great speculation, ant
was sent 10 Ludlow-Street jail for some
alleged irregularities growing ont of hi
financial transactions, and which led t
civil suits. He died in Ludlow-Stree
jail pauper while his rich wife wa
leading a gay life in Paris, a woman
who deliberately left her husband t.
die poor and comparatively friendless
A more disgusting exhibition of fash
ionable heartlessness has seldom beer
presented in real life. Heath was
man Of ability, gentleman in manne
and education, and for years was yer.
successful.
John Tobin, once president of th
Hudson-Biver railroad and now abou
seventy years of age, is tall, stoop
shouldered, sharp-featured, and ha
keen, rat like eyes. He was once wortl
two millions, but is now said to b.
specializing in the bucket-shops. HI
was in the heyday of his fortunes a
the beginning of the civil war anS
before the Hudson-River road wa
merged with the New York Central. 1
was a time of wild speculations in golC
and stocks and everything else. tn,
gambling mania broke out everywhere
Tobin, it is said, dropped a good deal o
money with John Morrissey, the keepe
of gambling resorts here and in Sara
toga. One night, it is said, Tobin los
a large sum and gave Morrissey check
but stopped it the next day. Morrisse.
complained to old Commodore Wander
bilt, who, it is said, turned against To
bin on this account, and ultimately Ia,
him ousted as president of the Hudson
River road. Here is dramatic transi
ton. A man worth $2,000,000 nov
making s. turns in the bucket-shops
1t is the oldstory OF unsuccessful specu
lations.
Bank presidents say that 70 per cent
OF the men who go into business soone